Friday, August 14, 2009

Fun with fabric paint


I've been wanting to get some fabric painting done this summer, but weather and time never seemed to coincide. On Wednesday afternoon, I looked at the bright sun shining on our back deck, and decided I would put off all the other stuff I had to do. Of course by the time I dragged out all my supplies and mixed my paint a huge cloud covered the sun! Sigh....
I like to use the Pebeo Setacolor (transparent color) fabric paints, which work well for sun-printing. (Our Michaels store used to carry them, but it all went on clearance earlier this summer, which at least let me restock my supplies.) You can see some examples of sun-prints in my Fabric Painting set on Flickr. On Wednesday, it became too cloudy and humid to get a good sun-print effect, so I focused instead on jazzing up some boring fabric. The unpainted fabric visible next to the paints above was a white-printed beige cotton fat quarter. The white design somehow acts as resist, and when you paint over it in a bright color like red, the pattern just pops!
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I also experimented with some fabric scraps from a friend who makes vintage-style clothing. This pale green fabric needed some stronger color, and it was fun to discover that the floral pattern on it also stood out when painted a brighter green.
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I also salted one fat quarter on a stretcher frame. Add rock salt while the paint's still wet (left) and then as it dries the salt sucks the color into flame-like organic swirly patterns (right). Here are a bunch of experiments laid out to dry in the back yard:
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Now when's my next free sunny day???

Blogged for Fiber Arts Friday

7 comments:

Terri Kahrs said...

Carolyn, I wish I could see these gorgeous results "in person"! The results of your painting mesmerized me.I'm hoping that another sunny day is on the horizon soon! Hugs, Terri xoxo

TexasRed said...

Beautiful! I haven't been brave enough to try fabric painting, but will one of these days.

Carolyn B said...

Thanks, Terri & Texas Red! Fabric painting is so addictive (and so much easier to do than dyeing because you don't have to do all the chemical stuff!)

LazyTcrochet said...

This looks like a lot of fun.

fiberdance said...

wow-gorgeous colors--you'll have to teach me the rock salt technique-that looks great. Seeya, kathi

Cathy Spivey Mendola said...

Wow, you had a very productive day playing with your paints! I too have been thinking all summer that I would take ONE day to just paint some fabrics but that day hasn't come yet! I have only tried setacolor once but really LOVED it.
Thanks for the inspiration to schedule my fabric painting day!
xoxo
cathy

Carolyn B said...

Thanks for stopping by, LazyT, Kathi & Cathy! Hope to get some more painting days before winter sets in!

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